---
layout: docs
page_title: Boundary Metrics
description: |-
  Obtain visibility of various components of a running Boundary
---

## Boundary Metrics

Boundary provides metrics through the `/metrics` path using a listener with the
`"ops"` purpose. By default, a listener with that purpose runs on port `9203`.
See the [example configuration](#example-configuration) section for an example
listener stanza in a `config.hcl` file.

Metrics are important for understanding what is happening in a Boundary
deployment, enabling diagnoses of deployed controllers and workers. The exported
metrics grant greater visibility into the various components of a running
Boundary deployment through Prometheus.

The metrics uses the [OpenMetric
exposition](https://prometheus.io/docs/instrumenting/exposition_formats/#openmetrics-text-format)
format which can be read by
[Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/docs/introduction/overview/).

### Controller

The following table lists the current names and descriptions of metrics provided
by controllers.

| Name                                                          | Description                                   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| `boundary_controller_api_http_request_duration_seconds`       | Histogram of latencies for HTTP requests.     |
| `boundary_controller_api_http_request_size_bytes`             | Histogram of request sizes for HTTP requests.  |
| `boundary_controller_api_http_response_size_bytes`            | Histogram of response sizes for HTTP requests. |
| `boundary_controller_cluster_grpc_request_duration_seconds`   | Histogram of latencies for requests made to the gRPC service running on the cluster listener. |

### Worker

The following table lists the current names and descriptions of metrics provided
by workers.

| Name                                                          | Description                                   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| `boundary_worker_proxy_http_write_header_duration_seconds`    | Histogram of time elapsed after the TLS connection is established to when the first http header is written back from the server. |
| `boundary_worker_proxy_websocket_active_connections`          | A gauge of the current count of open proxy connections on the worker. |
| `boundary_worker_proxy_websocket_received_bytes_total`        | Count of received bytes sent over all proxy connections handled by the worker. |
| `boundary_worker_proxy_websocket_sent_bytes_total`            | Count of sent bytes sent over all proxy connections handled by the worker. |

### Other

The following table lists the current miscellaneous metrics provided by Boundary.

| Name                                                          | Description                                   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| `boundary_build_info`    | A gauge set to 1 with label values detailing the current Go version, git revision, and Boundary version. |

### Metric Labels

Each metric uses labels to help organize and narrow its scope so that users can
filter for different characteristics, allowing more flexible analysis of the
measurements collected.

#### Metrics for HTTP requests include the following labels:

| Label        | Description                                                    |
|--------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| `code`       | The HTTP status code of the request (e.g., “200”, “400”, etc.). |
| `path`       | The path, excluding query parameters, associated with the request. The value for this label replaces resource IDs with "{id}" (for example, `/v1/groups/{id}` is a possible value for this label). Any unexpected paths receive the value "unknown." |
| `method`     | The name of the method on the HTTP request.  For example "GET", “POST”, “DELETE”. |


#### Metrics for gRPC requests include the following labels:

| Label           | Description                                                     |
|-----------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| `grpc_method`   | The name of the method on the grpc service (e.g., `GetGroup`).  |
| `grpc_service`  | The proto service name including the package (e.g., `controller.api.services.v1.GroupService`). |
| `grpc_code`     | The grpc [status code](https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go/blob/master/codes/codes.go) in human-readable format. For example, `OK`, `IllegalArgument`, `Unknown`. |


## Example configuration

Defining a listener stanza in the config file is sufficient for enabling metrics
reporting in Boundary. For details on what fields are allowed in this stanza,
refer to the documentation about [TCP
Listener](/boundary/docs/configuration/listener/tcp).

An example listener stanza:

```hcl
listener "tcp" {
	purpose = "ops"
	tls_disable = true
}
```

## Tutorial

Refer to the [Prometheus
Metrics](/boundary/tutorials/oss-configuration/prometheus-metrics)
tutorial for a step-by-step introduction to metrics.
